Monday, February 10, 2014

We're happy to pass along news that the University Libraries' Digital Projects unit has completed the digitization of 236 scrapbooks held in University Archives (see their blog post with additional details about the project). Highly acidic paper and glue along with delicate bindings make the physical scrapbooks challenging to handle and use as a researcher. By digitizing the scrapbooks, researchers will be able to search and use these valuable, yet fragile, records.

Many of these scrapbooks were created by students or student groups (clubs, dormitories, etc.). As such, these important records help document the history of student life at the school we now know as UNCG. The oldest of the digitized scrapbooks, however, contains newspaper clippings, programs, and other materials relating to the death of founding president Charles Duncan McIver in 1906. One of the most recently-created scrapbooks documents the activities, events, and productions associated with the UNCG School of Music, the UNCG Summer Repertory Theatre, and the UNCG Theatre from 2001-2002.